Goldwyn

This is a suit by a motion picture producer against motion picture exhibitors and their agents to recover damages for, and obtain injunctive relief from, asserted violations of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. 1 Damages were claimed in the sum of $2,250,000, trebled to $6,-750,000. Jurisdiction was asserted under sections 4 and 16 of the Clayton Act.

The action was commenced on May 16, 1950, by Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Inc. 3 Nine corporations and three individuals were named defendants. Five of the corporate defendants and two of the individual defendants were granted a separate trial. 4 The third individual defendant, Charles P. Skouras, died on October 22, 1954, and the action was discontinued as to him.

The four defendants remaining in the case for this trial are the so-called “Fox defendants”: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Twentieth Century Fox), National Theatres Corporation (National), Fox West Coast Theatres Corporation (Fox West Coast) and Fox West Coast Agency Corporation (Fox West Coast Agency).

Twentieth Century Fox, the parent corporation in this group, 5 is an integrated producer, distributor and exhibitor of motion pictures. National, in…